I am six years old. I am playing in the sand near my house. It’s fun. Mom said not to go too far, and to be home before dark. That’s ok. It’s a long time before it gets dark.

I like digging in the sand. I make castles. Then I smush them. It makes me laugh.

I am going to be seven soon. That means I can start learning to fight. I am going to be the bestest fighter ever. One day, I am going to be a pod pilot too, like on TV. 

I pick up one of my toy spaceships and start swooshing it around. “Death to Amarr!” I giggle. I am going to kill many Amarr. I am going to be a hero.

I see a shadow over me. I turn and see my dad. “It’s ok, son. You just keep playing. Keep digging. What did you find?” I turn back to look at the sand and see a bunch of black blocks sticking up. I don’t remember them being there. “I found blocks!” I say excitedly to my father. “Well, just keep digging, little warrior. I am sure you’ll find more.” I smile as big as I can for my dad. He’s nice. I hear a dog barking in the distance. My father hears it too. “Don’t go too far ok? You know how dangerous it can be out there, and I wouldn’t want anything to happen to my precious little man.” He ruffles my hair. That feels good. My dad walks away, and I keep digging. I want to find buried treasure and give it to him as a surprise! He will like that. Bark! Bark! Bark! The dog sounds closer. 

—

“How is the subject responding?” a cold voice inquires. “Quite well. He is in a state of complete compliance. Accessing his neural core was easy, given his capsuleer interface. We can make his mind believe anything we wish.” a more clinical voice replies. “Very good. Carry on.”

They stand there together, arms behind their backs, behind a thick sheet of transparent reinforced steel, monitoring the numerous systems around them. One of them adjusts the intravenous drip slightly, inducing an even deeper dream state into their subject. Vital signs are strong and stable. Neural activity quite active. No hint of disbelief in the reality being presented to him. They would extract the required information soon, then simply feed a lethal poison into his system when he was of no more use.

—

I’ve made a big hole. Mom is going to be upset at how dirty I am. I still haven’t found anything. I need to keep digging deeper. Bark! Bark! Bark! That sounded much closer. It’s getting dark too. 

I stand up and try to dust myself off. It’s time to go home or I will be in big trouble. I turn to head back towards my house when I see the dog in front of me. It has dark fur. I know I’ve seen this kind of dog before, but I cann’t remember what they are called. They are rare, not like the usual strays, or the hunting dogs my dad and his friends used to go hunting. It’s very strong looking in the chest. I walk up to it. It doesn’t look angry. His tail is wagging. I think he likes me! 

“Roc! What are you doing?” My dad yells at me. “Step away slowly from that dog! It’s wild!” It doesn’t look wild. It looks nice. It looks familiar. “Roc! Step away from the dog!” The dog tilts his head to one side, looking at me, whimpering softly as I back away. BARK! BARK! BARK! “Run!” My dad screams, and I turn and run. I hear the dog growling as I run away, and when I look back, I see it attack my dad. I start crying. It looked like such a nice dog.

—

“It’s a mild neural spike. Nothing to worry about. It’s stabilized now.” says the clinical voice. “I don’t care if it’s stable now, I want to know what the hell it was.” a more demanding, military sounding voice retorts. “Running a diagnostic now, sir.” The clinical voice sounds nervous.

—

I don’t know what to do, or where to run to. I am on my hands and knees, still crying. The dog attacked my dad! My brain hurts. I love my dad. I hope he’s ok. What would a pod pilot do? What would a hero do?

I stand up, balling my hands into fists. I am going to help my dad. It was a bad dog. I start running back to my house. I am going to help my dad.

—

“It’s an adrenaline surge causing the spike. Stabilize the alpha waves.” 

—

I get back to where I was playing. It’s dark now. Mom’s gonna be mad. I don’t see dad anywhere, and my blocks are gone from the sand. The dog stands where my blocks were. He has sand all over his feet. His tail is wagging, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. He looks happy.

“Where’s my dad?” I ask him.

BARK! BARK! BARK!

“Where’s my blocks?” I walk towards him to pet his head. He’s a nice dog. I like him. 

BARK! BARK! BARK!

What is he barking at? I look around. I can’t see anything.

BARK! BARK! BARK!

“I don’t know what you want, boy.” I bend down in front of him, so he doesn’t have to look up so much. It probably hurts his neck. Then he growls and pounces on me. I am very scared.

—

“I can’t stabilize the alphas.”

“Then elevate the deltas. Do I have to do all of your thinking for you? We need him to remain calm and compliant!”

—

I scream. The dog is on top of me. I can’t get him off. 

BARK! BARK! RARK! RAWK! ROC!

—

“There. It’s under control now.”

—

Everything goes white.